HART294 Fashion History I 3 cr.

A survey of the history of costume from its beginnings as primitive adornment with skins, grasses, body paints, tattooing, and beads, to the extravagant fashions of the sixteenth Century through the Renaissance periods. Visual aids such as videos, slides, and pictorial references will help the student to explore the historical development of clothing, from draped classical garments to the elaborate structured clothing of the Spanish and English courts of the Northern Renaissance. Emphasis is placed on the influences of social, political, and economic conditions, and how these variables reflected an individual’s status, taste, and culture. Field trips to museums, vintage stores and other historical institutions are required in order to appreciate the three dimensional aspect of the way in which garments were made during specific periods. The quality of fabrics used, and body types that were typical of each period will be considered.